Shame about the "C" in the lineage... There's an odd high end unpleasantness in this recording, presumably lost in the DAT copy. Phil is barely audible as well....

Still, I remember this show fondly. The very next year the Deer Creek '90 shows were the stuff of legend. It's almost like Jerry remembered the China Doll F-up from the year before and laid down one for the ages to make up for it.

Maybe he did.

This was the first of about 20 shows that my friends and I were privileged to experience. We came down from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. If you remember the movie, Richard Dryfuss' charactor was from Muncie... remember his Ball U. t-shirt?! I think this was the Dead's way of paying homage to that and the place went BANANAS! Gotta give it a fiver for no other reason than it was my first!

i think jerry sounds hip on smokestack lightning. not as hip as hubert sumlin, but pretty hip. yea you right.

This is what is truly sounds like at the center of the floor...great balance of tonalities, you can hear everything clearly...it brings you right back into the game!!!

GD had a mail order open for this show for 1 day before they canceled it; as they were overwhelmed with all the stadium show mail orders they received. I didn't know the mail order was canceled until after I had sent one in for 4 tickets. I got a call from the GDTS office like a month later. The DUDE on the phoned was like "Hi, this is BAMBI with GDTS we got all our stadium shows mail orders done and we had a handful of mail orders for Deer Creek, so since we had the time we wanted to know if you wanted this Mail order filled?"
I was ecstatic to say the least. GDTS hooked me up with awesome seats and the show was stupendous. There were so many highlights during that show for me; candyman, queen jane, birdsong, truckin>smokestack, close encounters, stella blue.
It was a really intimate show with the GD that summer night, 15k people after being in 60-80k Stadiums. 89 GD is exuberant and it shines through Jerry all over this show.

Overall: sound-wise, this is very good, but has a little something extra on the high-end that makes it slightly less than perfect. And there are intermittent sound problems, unrelated to the recording, in the first set (it sounds approximately like duct tape being unrolled). A good show, but I think Deer Creek shows sort of got a “larger-than-life” reputation over the years for some unknown reason. I don’t actually think this is any better than an average show for spring/summer ‘89 (Greensboro, Pittsburg, Alpine, Cal Expo, Greek are all at least as good, IMO).

The Scene: at this time, I think the venue was brand new. I remember the parking lot looked freshly paved and everything looked like it was in great shape. Obviously, it was the first time the boys had played there. I don’t think we ever found any sort of main scene in the lot this year (the next year I was in the St. Stephen bus parked the back side of the venue and the “scene” was there, so maybe that’s where it was in 89 as well). But, of course, the venue itself was fantastic and over the years it became a favorite for many (I only saw 89 and 90).

The music: as stated elsewhere, there are some sound issues in the first set. But otherwise a really solid set. The Queen Jane stands out as a bit better than average - Jerry, Bobby, and Brent all seem to put a little more energy into it than usual. There’s something about a nice Candyman at a summer show that always made me smile. Bird Song also soars really high (the highlight of the show, IMO). Second set is good, but not quite as good as some make it out to be. Good Smokestack, with Bobby really spittin’ it mean and juicy. I love the China Doll, but China Doll and Stella post-space? That’s one too many Jerry ballads in that time slot, IMO – should have done something other than Stella. Bobby’s post-space contributions are very strong with good high energy.

Unless you lived locally, this was the first time most of us got a peek at Deer Creek. Wonderful surprise. One of the finest venues for sure. Shows were solid. What could be better than heading to Alpine afterwards. Deer Creek > Alpine run was one of the best back to back venues they did in that time period. The band played like they thought so as well.

well if you were on the lawn then you realized that their was a huge time delay from the stage speakers and the field speakers(first three songs) i wasnt sure it was really happenning, if you know what i mean, then asken friends in the same shape and were relieved they were hearing the same as me, then in space they rip out close encounters (i guess that was there way of cristening a new venue) thought garcia was calling in the aliens for sure : )

My first Dead show. Not the best, but love it!!!!!!!

Hearing Bobby take over on the lyrics for Jerry during Crazy Fingers always makes me chuckle. In my opinion, set 1 is stronger than 2, but overall it's a good Deer Creek show, the first of many great years (with the exception of the 95 disaster which included death threats on Garcia and the whole gate/fence incident). Sound quality is not great, overall a 4-. Alpine was WORLDS better.

I was at this show and am surprised at how many people missed the "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" during space. On this recording it starts at 8:00 during space. Space, its not just for hippies anymore...

Watch out here if Garcia meltdowns during Crazy Fingers bother you....biggies here. And the China Doll is all over the place too. Too bad, since the balance of the show is good...with the excellent Close Encounters space. Overall, still a decent show.

can that be true ?

Fine show

AFter this show we came back to every one while I lived in the midwest and wsas never disappointed. The dead had just been playing stadiums and seemed to enjoy the relatively "small" venue compared to places like RFK and Giants Stadium. First set wsa good, I will never forget the guy walking around throwing Hershey Kisses at people during Candyman. The Bird Song is simply epic. The second set is nice, a bit choppy lyrically but the playing more then compensates, including the long run into drums with the nice Smokestack and the sweet early Midi guitar into the first part of China Doll. Watchtower rips, asdoes hte Sugar Mag, and we knew this was to be a place we bid farewell each year by the end of the Brokedown.

This was the best outdoor venue for the Dead. They always had tremendous energy and played great shows at Deer Creek. Bertha was a great opener. I remember listening to Crazy Fingers on the hill and watching fireworks in the distance. A well worth-while download! The sbd is not the best, but well above average

This was my 22nd birthday. I can't really add anything to the review that Schwadust made, but I will comment on the first set: the Queen Jane is triumphant. Strong vocals from everybody, great solos from Breant and Jer, and the song ends with a magnificent Phil Bomb. Check out the way Bobby sings the line, "...all throw down their bandanas and com-PLAIN!" Everybody in my section impulsively screamed. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Bird Song is also top shelf here, too.

Get the show.. you'll really dig it.

Sean K.

Only 4 stars cuz i thought 90 was better lol and sdb quality was soso gets good tho after space killer china dolls toys. Thx again archives keep on truckin ........Jc

And the start of an epic journey that ended up at Alpine Valley...

This show is one that has it all. Perfect versions of some songs, some that have moments of stumblin rumblin bumblin...(the Crazy Fingers comes to mind...listen to the exit out of the jam into the "Life may be sweeter...", it's hilarious...and one amazing phoenix rising from the ashes moment that was incredible to be a part of...I'll get to that later.

The first set began strong, but then something started squawkin' in the speakers during GSET and Bobby kind of reverted to his junior sound detective mode...fiddlin' with this and that...eventually the problem was fixed, and Candyman returned us to the land of the copacetic...

I started down toward the pavilion during Walkin' Blues, and by the time Peggy-O started, I had found sound nirvana on the sidewalk right behind the seats of the pavilion, just to the left of the tapers. Man, it sounded so full and clear that I just couldn't leave and stayed there for the rest of the night.

My friend Blake was takin' in his first show, although he was an unabashed Jerry freak already, and when Peggy-O started, his eyes just sparkled and his grin grew to proportions I didn't know existed. What a sweet version. I can still see Blake just lesiurely dancin' his way through the crowd, into the pavilion and down toward the stage. Like a moth before a flame...

The rest of the first set was also good, but nothing could prepare you for the onslaught to come in the second set.

Things started with a jubialant Foolish Heart. Jerry may have fumbled a word or 2 here and there, but the jam gets there and back and there again...one of my all time favorite versions...Victim was as beautifully twisted as it ever was...I actually am a big fan of this song (sue me)...again, the jams were titanic and led syrupily into the aformentioned Crazy Fingers where Jerry absolutely butchers the exit from one of the prettiest soloes he's ever done during Crazy Fingers by singing "Gone are the days..." instead of "Life may be sweeter..." He doesn't fully recover until "...carousel ride...". Still, vocal flubbing aside, this is a beautiful Crazy Fingers.

Truckin' was a monster, especially the jam into Smokestack...holy shit, it was chaotic...the music was goin' nuts, the place was goin' crazy, and full out freak dancin' was happenin' all around me...Jane, get me off this crazy thing...it was incredible. Smokestack was angry Bob at its finest...psychaedelic basement blues...nice jam into an incredible drums and a space that eventually turned into Jerry's personal homage to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The whole show was cosmic, but this was ridiculous!! I fully expected the mother ship to come down and take us all away...but then China Doll came around and thoroughly grounded us back at Deer Creek for a stunning post drums section.

China Doll was as fragile as ever, and had a different flavor to it as Jerry didn't take off his midi guitar for it. This became a catalyst for the amazing phoenix from the ashes moment to come. When Jerry exited the China Doll jam, he sang the proper verse, but he sounded confused and tentative, and he ended up in a musical limbo with the band hangin' around tryin' to figure out where this was headed. He needed to get to the "Take up yourChina Doll" part, but he was lost. It was quite amazing...I don't know if the midi sound made it sound different to Jerry's ears and he got so lost in the sound that he forgot where he was in the song, but they just bounced around for awhile in limbo when a big ole "squawnk" electronic bomb was dropped as Jerry unhooked the midi and plugged the Tiger in and went back into the jam, this time exiting properly, and the song moved nicely to its beautiful conclusion. A raging Watchtower followed, and a crystalline Stella Blue gave me a nice rest for the huge, gallopin' Sugar Mags that ended this epic set.

I was almost surprised they came back out for an encore...how do you follow that set? Well, you follow it with the sweetest Brokedown Palace you can muster, which is exactly what they did. A beautiful end to a magical night.

When I finally ran into Blake back at the car he was so happy he didn't even realize that he had left his shoes inside the show up by the fence in the lawn...they were the only pair he brought...and we were headin' to Alpine Valley...

After downloading and listening to the performance, I stand by my review...although the recording itself sounds somewhat generational to my ears...